TOPEX ground data system

The TOPEX Project is a proposed oceanographic mission to measure the topography of the sea surface for a period of three years. This mission is sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Measurements of topography are used to study ocean currents, tides, bathymetry and the oceanic geoid. Several of the primary goals of this mission are to process and verify the altimetric data, and distribute them within days to the science investigators. This paper describes the TOPEX end-to-end ground data system. In addition to controlling the TOPEX satellite, the ground data system has been designed to minimize the time from data acquisition to science processing and data distribution. A centralized design supports the favorable response time of the system and also allows for operational efficiencies. Networking of real time and non-real time elements of the data system provides for more effective data processing.